1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an in-line roof curb system that is primarily for roof mounted skylights. More particularly, the present invention relates to a unique roof curb system to be installed on metal buildings.
2. General Background of the Invention
There are almost 56 billion square feet (˜5202.57 square kilometers) of R-panel roofs being used in the United States with all other type metal roofs making up an estimated 20% of the remaining market of metal roofs. The typical domed skylight and metal curb is used almost exclusively on the smaller share of the metal roof market.
Almost all R-panel roofs utilize the same type of skylight. This type of skylight is not a curb mounted design, but is rather a translucent fiberglass panel that matches the profile of the R-panels and installed among the runs of metal R-panel. These R-panel skylights are typically 12 feet (3.6576 meters) long and 3 feet (91.44 centimeters) wide. Once installed, the R-panel skylight has an exposed surface of approximately 10 feet (3.048 meters)×3 feet (91.44 centimeters) and is fastened in the same manner as the R-panels, which is in a through-fastened nature utilizing self-tapping screws with rubber washers.
Due to the low cost nature of an R-panel roof, domed skylights have not been utilized because of the expense to custom manufacture and install a metal curb to fit on an R-panel roof that doesn't hinder water flow while housing a domed skylight. Even with the other type of metal roofs, which are more costly than R-panel roofs, this drawback of expense for manufacture and installation has limited the opportunity to install large numbers of domed skylights on metal roofs.
The system of the present invention solves this problem by providing an affordable roof curb system for installing domed skylights on R-panel and other metal roof types that does not hinder water flow.
The following US Patents are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,559,753; 4,649,680; 4,860,511; 5,323,576; 6,532,877; 6,775,951; 7,043,882; 8,713,864; 8,438,801; 8,763,324; and 8,438,798.